“Coming back from vacation, my boyfriend and I were stuck on separate flights, and I missed my connection. He waited for me in the airport for hours just to say good night.” —Nadia, 28, Chicago

“I wrote him a really long e-mail about how frustrating his mother could be. He never got upset or said I was out of line—he just discussed it calmly.” —L.K., 24, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.

“After our iron broke, he shower-steamed a dress so I’d have something to wear for work!” —Rachel, 30, New York City

“When I mentioned this really cute pink tinsel Christmas tree I’d seen, I didn’t think he was even listening. But when I got home from work, there it was,
plus ornaments and lights.” —Joanne, 32, San Francisco

“That she’s not materialistic. And she puts up with my very loud snoring.” —Paul, 34, Monterey Park, Calif.

“She tells me what to wear—because I have no clue.” —Alex, 31, New York City

“I’m high-strung and she calms me down. With her hand on my chest, I can breathe a little deeper.” —Duane, 32, Tulsa, Okla.

“My girl’s got cool style and a good head on her shoulders, and she’s nobody’s fool, not even mine.” —Geoff, 36, Los Angeles

“She is comfort; loving like an embrace. Her eyes look like home.” —Eric, 39, Paris

Photo: Chris Craymer

4 Love Lessons From the ‘Rents

“When my mom broke her foot, I thanked my ADD dad for patiently sitting with her at the doctor’s. He said, ‘That’s what I was put on this earth for.’” —Erin, 29, Nantucket, Mass.

“My mother was upset because she’d dropped a stitch on a scarf she had to finish in time for knitting class. My father said, ‘Hey, your mother dropped a stitch. Tell her something nice.’ He doesn’t care about knitting—but he does care about my mother.” —Akiba, 34, Philadelphia

“For 25 years, my mom was a dutiful military wife and a mother of four. Just when I thought she’d had enough, my dad bought her a solo vacation to Paris for two weeks to study art. He was showing her that he loved her by giving her the freedom to once again explore her deepest desires.” —Tomika, 32, Brooklyn

“My mom had always wanted a piano, but my dad said we couldn’t afford it. One day he called my mom at work and told her he was locked out of the house and he needed her to let him in. She came home and her piano was sitting in the living room with a big red bow around it.” —Sarah, 21, Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Photo: Hagiwara/Brand X/Corbis

Twenty Celebs Who Defy the Odds

25 years
Kurt Russell + Goldie Hawn

20 years
Tom Hanks + Rita Wilson

17 years
John Travolta + Kelly Preston

16 years
Warren Beatty + Annette Bening

16 years
Sting + Trudie Styler

12 years
Antonio Banderas + Melanie Griffith

12 years
Mark Consuelos + Kelly Ripa

12 years
Forest Whitaker + Keisha Nash Whitaker

11 years
Will Smith + Jada Pinkett Smith

9 years
David Arquette + Courteney Cox Arquettte

And 16 with a great chance: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, Nelly and Ashanti, Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale, Christy Turlington and Ed Burns, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher

5 Movie Lines That Make Us Melt

“Scarlett! Look at me! I’ve loved you more than I’ve ever loved any woman, and I’ve waited longer for you than I’ve ever waited for any woman.” —Gone With the Wind

“The best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are. Good mood, bad mood, ugly, pretty, handsome, what have you, the right person’s still gonna think the sun shines out your ass.” —Juno

“We’ll always have Paris.” —Casablanca

“I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich…. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.”

—When Harry Met Sally

Mr. Big: “We’re getting married. Should we get you a diamond?”
Carrie: “No, no. Just get me a really big closet.” —Sex and the City: The Movie

Photo: New Line Cinema/Courtesy Everett Collection

9 Love Stories to Read When You Feel Cynical

Michael Weiss-Malik, 30, waited for the van that records images for Google Maps to drive by his office. Then he held up the sign “Proposal 2.0: Marry Me Leslie!!” After people told his girlfriend, Leslie Moreno, 27, to go online and view the proposal on Google Maps, she did—and yes, she said yes.

While Army Reserve Specialist Connie Spinks was recovering from severe burns sustained in Iraq, she met and eventually married fellow patient Albert Ross, who’d lost a leg in the war. “I didn’t think anybody would ever find me attractive,” Spinks recalls. “But he was looking at me like, Oh, she’s so beautiful.”

Forty years ago British teen Christine Orchard had a baby with her 21-year-old boyfriend. Her family kept her from seeing the father again, but earlier this year, their daughter arranged a reunion. In September the couple married.

Last fall, 22-year-old Lindsay Anderson married Josh Leve at Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital, where 12 years ago she had a brain tumor removed. Anderson said she wanted to “give hope and courage” to kids now in treatment.

Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu, actor George Takei, 71, married his partner this year. “Brad and I have shared our lives for over 21 years,” said Takei. “We are overjoyed!”

Charles Burke of Farmingdale, New Jersey, wrote to Glamour, suggesting a feature on women aging gracefully that would include Winnie, 64, his wife of 42 years. “I still love to shop for her at Victoria’s Secret,” he writes. “She is simply gorgeous, and she is even more beautiful in her heart.”

China’s earthquake last May left Wang Zhijun and his wife Li Wanzhi buried in rubble for 28 hours, their arms wrapped around each other. The marriage had been in trouble, but the experience rekindled their love. “We said once we got out, we’d live a good life,” Li told a reporter. “Now we have a new start.”

In 2005 Princess Sayako of Japan gave up her title (and a royal allowance) to marry a commoner.

When blind Brazilian sprinter Adria Santos won bronze in the Beijing Paralympic Games this summer, her husband, Rafael, was running at her side, bound to her with a rope tether. “We are always hand in hand,” she says.

Photo: Chris Craymer

Love by the Numbers

10 Number of Americans who marry as a result of meeting their match on dating website e-Harmony

88 Percent of glamour.com readers who believe in love, even when they’ve just had their heart broken

2 Number of weeks the average person spends kissing during her life

1970 Last year in which the national divorce rate was as low as it is now

97 Percent of people who are happy in their committed relationship

82 Percent of Americans who’ve never stood anyone up

28 Percent of married men who’ve been unfaithful—a lot lower than what experts had previously believed